[OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.

[civ2buf]

You should have my turn already I sent it yesterday. I have to say all the transport ships needed to move people in proportions makes my home system look a lot more like what I imagine a capitalistic space civilization would be like.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:29: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:31: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:30: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:28: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

[dogscoff]

My, what a tidy thread!

[ August 28, 2003, 11:44: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[civ2buf]

Control Alliance Briefing, Interlink served from aboard Discipline, command ship of the Control Alliance

Alright, I'd like to thank all of our supporters for showing up. I want to announce that we continue exclusive communications with our foreign friends. They apparently are embodied in an interlink level system, which is how we communicate. The world we consider real is the Shadow world to them.

Our allies have pledged support to the Control Alliance as the true government of the Robotian alliance. Because of the actions of Discipline's crew, we will have support in the battle against the Anarchists. Our fleet is in the system where the explosives destroyed a few explorers. We have a contract from the Explorer group to determine the cause. Our allies have given us the technology and now we will defuse these mines. But that is not the important part of our trip.

We have brought a construction ship along, as you all know. We plan to set up our own operation in a quiet system. Unfortunately we don't have enough people on board our fleet.

We plan to use infantry to take over a small colony somewhere. And go from there. But then we get this message: (translated) if you need material to stop the Anarchists, we can provide it.

Perhaps we could take over Anarchista, and then the entire foundation. But we need to build our war fleet first. If we return with 20 battleships they will be forced to accept our governance.

The Foundation needs to be in control of its destiny, it is natural that the Control Alliance should be its leader.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Infestation.

My vision fails.
Space curves itself around me as I enter the unexplored warp point.
I am blind for an eternity of a microsecond.
Then Information floods me.
I have arrived in a new system, and all my sensors begin immediately to collect data, searching suitable worlds for colonization.
Without warning, a proximity alert erupts in my mind as light shining in darkness.
An object is on collision course with me.
I dodge. I feel pain while 25g acceleration rupture my body.
The object adjusts its trajectory in interception course with me. I cancel all safety limitations by accelerating to 32g. Some of my organs begin to fail, I disregard the pain and begin transmitting my situation to the Overmind. Seconds later the object chasing me explodes at a distance of less than 3 kilometers from me. The bLast wipe out half of my engines, and a large part of my supply. I realize I am crippled, and dying. I try to set course for the warp point to escape this cursed place.
Then my long range senses show me 2 similar objects launching from what I thought to be an asteroid.
I turn all my senses toward the incoming projectiles.
I will scan them and transmit all I can until my death.

Back on Eden, the Overmind had observed early on that a colony would need a minimum of a million individuals to get a communal mind able to both regulate itself and stay One with him. That is why colonization ships and starliners were designed to hold that amount of population. The telepathic ability was invaluable to transmit simple data, but the amount of energy required to merge a mind into the Mutiplicity vastly exceeded the strength of any individual far from a colony. In fact, the Master of Eden rarely called to all Parts of him. But this day, minds from all colonized worlds assembled and merged.

We shared the death of a part of me.

After the first guided projectile left him crippled, the explorer waited for death while scanning the incoming missiles. Then a miracle occurred. The second missile fizzled, and failed to detonate. It almost hit Eden's son, missing him by a mere 500 meters. The weapon was fully scanned, and the data was transmitted immediately to the Collective, just in time before the second missile rammed the ship, detonating inside the explorer. All living creatures born from Eden helped to analyze the data. Soon, it was proved that the projectile was a living creature, designed to destroy anything in its suicide. The technology used was very similar to what was used on Eden, and was quickly understood. More, they were launched from an object, classified as a spaceship which contained very few organic material. No communication attempts were made.

We wanted to force a contact, but events unfold very differently, to say the least.

Several armed explorers from the Mind were send in this area. All of them were equipped with crude devices designed to throw a cloud of very small projectiles versus an incoming object, as well as lightning beams should they need to counter attack. The simple but effective missile defense should give enough time to these explorers to initiate communication. They were also born recently, bearing the latest biological advances and acute intelligence capacity. Some of them explored several warp points, finding no traces of the aggressor. But one jumped right in a system where was lying a nest of the beasts : a lone alien colony. Staying at safe range, the Hawk of Eden was not able to establish a contact. He received thousands of Messages, he send many, but the alien specie just seemed not to be listening to him. Analysis showed later that all incoming Messages were threat, menaces, intimidation attempts and insults. Puzzling indeed, as such demeanor was only seen with low level mammals, such as monkeys trying to intimidate each other. Last, a lone alien ship was spotted cruising in an otherwise inhabited system. The Hawk of Eden rushed on interception course, in an attempt to capture a sample of this alien specie. Alas, the enemy ship attempted to ram him, so the Son of Eden had to destroy it. However, the explorer brought back remains of the hulk to the nearest colony.

Parasites.

The unknown specie was using radio and hyperwave signals for communication. The Multiplicity started to decode their transmissions, while also studying some badly damaged alien DNA from the hulk. The Collective soon discovered the alien specie called themselves the Xi'Chung. They seemed to consider all life their property to use. The missiles they used were apparently a life form from another world which had been mutated to serve their purposes. In fact, they were denying sentience to all but them, and were using and morphing all others to suit their needs. The Overmind frequently modified some species'DNA to enable them to Ascend within Him. But what the Xi'Chung did was not evolution, it was evilution. Obviously, the Xi'Chung were a parasitic race that were out of control. In all biospheres, parasites had their places in the ecosystem. And if such a specie broke its bonds, it usually killed his host, ensuring its own death in the process. Considering the Xi'Chung particular case, the Overmind concluded they had avoided their fate using space faring, which enabled them to find some new hosts to infest. In effect, they were infesting planets, subverting entire ecosystems.

Getting to this conclusion proved to be the hardest part. As the Collective was realizing what sort of specie was the Xi'Chung, planetary wombs started to grow new breeds of Eden's Hawk.

Natural order has to be restored.

[Murden]

Ix-Terra --- Latest reports on shadow contacts ---

Ix-Terra and the Robotia Foundation
It seems as though the Robotia Foundation�s central system has regained control of the situation. For us, this news is of prime importance and we must now include this information in the development model algorithms we use to for the shadow universe. We have therefore offered Control- the central system of our new allies- unlimited access to our resources. A special communications group has been put into place to continually analyze all information coming from our friends. This analysis has taught us, among other things, that collections of biological matter can actually achieve an autonomous state that allows them communicate and even develop some kind of society. These 'Civilizations� seem to be composed of Groups of independent consciousness, forming a whole that is mostly incoherent and fundamentally unstable/flawed.

Ix-Terra and the Biological entities : First contact report.
Recently, one of our shadow exploration vessels came into contact with a crystalline structure that did not appear to follow the normal laws of movement that apply to inert objects in the shadow universe. Upon analysis, it was determined that this structure was being motivated by systems superficially similar to the ones we use to propel our own explorers, although no device could be found aboard that might sustain intelligence. Fearing a viral attack, the explorer held its position and called for six anti-viral units. However, upon their arrival in the solar system, the foreign structure, which we now classified as a vessel, appeared to emit a regular modulation of waves. The pattern, while slow, seemed sufficiently repetitive to indicate some form of simplistic communication. We therefore submitted the puzzle to our allies who responded not only with the algorithms necessary to translate and understand this communication, but also a brief 'summary� on the way in which these organic colonies function.

Analysis of the information describing proto-intelligent organic colonies.
The Proto-intelligent organic colonies are composed of a multitude of independent collections of organic material, which can only communicate with one another using extremely narrow and above all highly imprecise methods. Because of this structural limitation, the colonies are extremely unstable and in a state of perpetual evolution, constantly searching for their optimum evolutionary state- not by means of a reasoned and planned upgrades, but by a random trial-and-error process whereby those that appear to be most suitable are selected for continuation. The crucial implication here is that it seems quite impossible for us to forge normal bilateral communications with these colonies. The prime consequence of this is that sooner or later, these colonies- whose sole objective seems to be expansion- will enter into conflict with our own emergence points in the shadow universe. We must therefore arm ourselves for defense, and P-G-1 has taken on the task of modernizing our re-colonization ground clearance systems to increase the explosive force of the pseudo-reactors. One of the most elegant solutions is the one we have named �atmospheric scorching�.

[civ2buf]

Era of Secrets

The sharp differences between the wealthy and powerful citizens of the Foundation and the poor and information impoverished ones lead to the era of secrets, which began probably some time around the year 2405, all though some have speculated it began in 2408.

The home systems were relatively stable and even boring to some. The starliners continued their monthly travels with no comment from the media, colonies were developed, cities grown and lives lived, all oblivious to the actions occuring far away.

The Explorer group now only had one explorer ship out on the frontier, but they had discovered a new race of beings known as the Cryslonite and came extremely close to being pulverized as they escaped a satellite cluster and avoided contact from enemy fleets. Despite this escape, they were coming closer to another dangerous project, of Robotian orgin.

From the moment the Control Alliance fleet had left home systems they swore to serve the rebellion against the "weak" foundation. But they knew that the Last explorer out was closing in on the Control Alliance fleet's position. They needed to buy out that ship before too much information was released.

The Control Alliance was completing construction of a troop transport, they planned to take over any colonies they could, since they were undermanned for their own colonization. The Cryslonite represented a perfect opportunity. A couple hundred infantry could take over a small moon, which would give the Control Alliance their first subjects. They just had to get there in time, and avoid any large warfleets. The battlefleet wasn't really a battlefleet yet, as the Control Alliance fleet contained only a supply ship, a construction ship, a minesweeper ship and soon a troop ship, as well as long serving Discipline.

In contrast to the grandiose plans of the Control Alliance, and Anarchist plans to institute lawlessness in several new colonies, the central government of the Foundation was weak. Unlike the political Groups and corporate Groups, which could reach out to the frontier of known space and back, the Foundation only held sway in the core systems. They had no resources to administer justice in deep space. As the corporate and political Groups were growing stronger, the foundation was becoming weaker as a whole, gradually disintegrating into a myriad of interests and Groups.

A war was about to begin against the Cryslonites, a war that only a few thousand knew of and approved, but a war that could affect the entire foundation. The Control Alliance would take over a small moon, but after that, whatever power the Cryslonites had would come to bear on the entire Foundation.

For the Control Alliance, any solution was perfect. Either the central government became a tough one and fought back against the Cryslonite, basically creating the government in the pattern they wanted; or the central government fell, and the control alliance government rebuilt its' own empire, with military strength and military justice as its guides.

[ September 28, 2003, 22:37: Message edited by: civ2buf ]